A few new details on Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII have surfaced from an interview in this week's Famitsu. Here are some of the key points:

The game is currently 30% complete

This will be Lightning's last game and will end with a happy ending. The game has just one ending.

The first FFXIII was story driven, meaning that the story pulled the player along. FFXIII-2 was player driven, meaning players selected the story. Lightning Returns is World Driven, meaning players have to consider how they interact with the changing world.

The game's in-game time works out to one day being the equivalent of one to two hours of real time. There will be increases and decreases in time.

The game is meant to be played and cleared multiple times. The volume is not such that it will take many tens of hours to clear once.

People from XIII-2 haven't died. Because of the effects of the chaos (I'm not sure if this is the proper English word), people have stopped aging and don't get old.

The Novus world has four continents, two natural and two city-type.

Depending on your actions, the remaining life of the world could decrease, and the game could end before the 13 day limit.

There are some times when helping someone will decrease the life of the world.

Defeating some enemies and clearing some quests will increase the life of the world.

Lightning is all by herself in battle, allowing you to concentrate more than when you had to control a party.

Lightning has become a considerably more refined person.

You can freely move around during battle. Some elements of the battle system are timing-based.

The battle system is close to action. There's an ATB gauge.

During battle, you don't select menu commands. Instead, you select abilities which have been assigned to buttons.

Hope will give guidance to Lightning via wireless com.

The city has clocks everywhere showing the constant progression of time.

A lot of very interesting details there. So the story will connected to the other two games and all the other characters haven't aged in hundreds of years..

That one does seem a little bit crazy to me..the reason Lightning hasn't aged was because she was frozen in crystal, but if the whole world stopped aging surely there would've been a massive population boom?

It also seem the battle system is going to be some sort of Action/ATB hybrid...can't wait to see it in action.

A lot of very interesting details there. So the story will connected to the other two games and all the other characters haven't aged in hundreds of years..

That one does seem a little bit crazy to me..the reason Lightning hasn't aged was because she was frozen in crystal, but if the whole world stopped aging surely there would've been a massive population boom?

No matter how interesting the gameplay sounds for this game, and it does sound interesting, it's hard for me to get excited when this game will likely have the same quality of writing as the first two games.

At the end of the day, the story is what makes an RPG experience something more than just playing a game. That's why I have yet to pick up FFXIII-2. I liked the gameplay improvements they made to that game, but since the writing seemed the same and the story was dismissed by almost everyone, I had no interest in the game. If I don't feel attached to the world, then it makes for a more superficial experience.

Now that it's only $20 though, I might pick it up for the hell of it. There's no games coming out anytime soon that I want.

No matter how interesting the gameplay sounds for this game, and it does sound interesting, it's hard for me to get excited when this game will likely have the same quality of writing as the first two games.

At the end of the day, the story is what makes an RPG experience something more than just playing a game. That's why I have yet to pick up FFXIII-2. I liked the gameplay improvements they made to that game, but since the writing seemed the same and the story was dismissed by almost everyone, I had no interest in the game. If I don't feel attached to the world, then it makes for a more superficial experience.

Now that it's only $20 though, I might pick it up for the hell of it. There's no games coming out anytime soon that I want.

The music is going to glue you and working the achievements will make the game worth a while.

Another thing I'm worried about is how this whole game is a race against the clock. I mean, this is supposedly an open-world RPG, and I'd want to take my time with that type of game. Walking around, exploring, talking to people, finding quests, etc. Having an overall time limit might make it a stressful experience.

Well, some news is better than no news. CVG was reporting earlier today that the game would come out on March 29th, 2013, based on a listing via Amazon UK. Square Enix said this wasn't true. You can read about it here.

While I personally did not like XIII, I decided to give XIII-2 a chance; I am enjoying the HECK out of that game. Now, I want to see what happens in XIII-3. However, the only thing that is swaying away from me getting XIII-3 is the time limit. I really, really hate time limits in RPGs (such as the Atelier games on the PS3). I will be waiting for more information before I reserve my final judgement.

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